


Victor Nikiforov Changed My Life - A Qualitative Interview Study

by Linisen



Series: BINGO for the 18+ On Ice Discord Server [6]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fanboy Katsuki Yuuri, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Canon, Secret Admirer, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-01 10:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20813360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Linisen/pseuds/Linisen
Summary: Victor’s twenty-four when he gets a fan message that’s quite a bit different.or. Yuuri lets his inner fanboy sneak out when he's had too much to drink and Victor is extremely intrigued by this secretive fan.





	Victor Nikiforov Changed My Life - A Qualitative Interview Study

**Author's Note:**

> Hi  
and welcome to my sixth piece for the 18+ on Ice Discord server event ‘BINGO’. The event contains of each participant getting a bingo card and then create as much content as they want for the prompts on it. My goal is to make a fic for all 25 squares in the card and you can find the rest of my fics for the event [here](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1482800) and for all for all of the participants at this [collection](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/18OI_Bingober_2019). A huge thank you to [Bearixt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bearixt/pseuds/Bearixt) for setting this up. Coming up with all the ideas have been so much fun, and it’s been great brainstorming them in the server with all you lovely people there. I adore all of you. 
> 
> The prompt that inspired this piece was Canon: Pre-Canon and thats so hard for me because I rarely write canon complete pieces. It took me a while to figure out this lil story and even though it's short I hope you enjoy it. 
> 
> A huge thank you to [faeriefirefly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/faeriefirefly/pseuds/faeriefirefly) for the beta. <3

Victor has a secret admirer. 

It’s a bit strange, since most of Victor’s admirers are not at all secret, rather typing out their names, phone numbers, and emails very enthusiastically, encouraging him to reply. Victor has an official email where he receives correspondence almost daily about how much someone has enjoyed his performance, what a treasure he is to the skating community, and asking him out on dates. It’s sweet. Victor is grateful for most of them, even if he sends out a standardised answer with some minor tweaks most of the time. It’s written by his PR manager and fills the function it’s supposed to. He comes off as kind and caring about his fans, but it doesn’t take too much time or seem unprofessional. It’s a good system. It works well with every other system Victor has in his life. 

Since he’s a professional athlete, Victor’s life is very structured. He gets up at the same time every day, eats the same breakfast that’s approved by his dietician, and takes his beloved dog on a long walk. After bringing Makka back home, he takes the car to the rink and does his warm up on the treadmill before heading to the ice. Morning practise is for working on jumps, and Yakov stands like a drill sergeant calling out what each skater is to do, no more than four on the ice at the same time. Victor gets the most ice time, National Champion and all.

The afternoon is dedicated to spins, steps, and choreography. The choreographers come out for that, but since Victor creates his own programs, he mostly works alone, with pointers from Yakov. There are some meals thrown in between practice sessions, also dietician approved, and then Victor ends the day with stretches and his cool down in the dance studio before he drives home. He takes Makka out again, then eats dinner on the couch and feeds her the scraps. The rest of the night is dedicated to movies, books, and cuddling his pup, and twice a week, Victor answers fan mail.

Victor’s twenty-four when he gets a fan message that’s quite a bit different. He’s just sat down on his couch at home, laptop on his lap as Makka dozes underneath his legs, which are resting on the coffee table. He opens his fan email and quickly starts going through them, sipping on warm, sweetened tea as he does. It’s a lot of kids saying they enjoy skating and hope to be like him, photos attached of them on the ice. They’re all adorable. Victor coos and answers all of them encouragingly. Some others are flirtatious and Victor lets them down easily if they’re being respectful. Some send dick pics and Victor doesn’t answer those. He really sees no point and they mostly freak him out.

There’re ten emails on this otherwise typical Monday, and he works his way through them until he reaches the last one, sent over the weekend. The email address is a scramble of numbers and letters, and the subject line reads:  _ Victor Nikiforov changed my life - a qualitative interview study. _ Intrigued, Victor opens the email, and at first glance, it seems to be empty. Victor frowns, about to exit and delete it, when he notices there’s a file attached. He bites his lip, wondering if maybe it’s a virus, but decides to open it anyway. 

A PDF opens, a neatly styled title page with the logo for Wayne State University at the top left corner, the subject of the email staring back at him, centered on the page. 

Victor Nikiforov Changed My Life

_ _ A Qualitative Interview Study _ _

It’s an essay. 

A twenty-five page long essay, based on interviews with fans about how his skating, Victor’s skating, has changed their lives for the better.

Victor’s never studied above the high school level, and even then, he graduated two years later than those in his age group. It was just too hard to skate full-time, six days a week, and keep up with school. Because of this, Victor has never read anything like what he now has open on his laptop. The essay has an introduction, background, aim, method, findings, and discussion, and references. The findings are filled with people praising him, how he inspired them to try harder, be brave, and try new things. How some proposed to their spouse to music he commissioned for his skates. It makes Victor breathless to read, and he can hardly wrap his mind around how someone could put so much time into creating something like this, something about his skating. With tears in his eyes, he finishes reading the conclusion, which claims his skating has impacted enough lives that he should be dubbed a knight or something equivalent. He doesn’t really feel he deserves this kind of praise. Victor scrolls up, finding all the author information deleted.  _ Huh _ . 

There’s nothing that can link him back to the person who’s written it, except the email, which as far as Victor can tell doesn’t contain a name or any other identifying information. 

He exits the document, making sure to save it first, and opens a response. For a long time, he just stares at the blank message box, trying to come up with anything to say to someone who’s put so much time, energy, and love into writing this. To find words to describe how grateful he is to have read it. He finds nothing that seems to measure up. Instead he copy-pastes the standardized answer, adding a line at the end about how he’s extremely honored and surprised, then hits send before he opens the essay again. 

Three months later, he gets another email from the same address, and as soon as Victor spots it in his inbox, he scrambles to open it. This one doesn’t have an attached file. Instead, there’s a three page analysis of his free skate from last year. It’s packed with skating terms, and Victor gets the feeling that this person must be involved with skating, or very invested in the sport. They analyze the music, a commission Victor got from a Russian orchestra. They analyze the jump lineup and the step sequences, the spins and choreography choices. The analysis contains both technical and artistic components, and Victor can’t help but laugh at the misinterpreted or exaggerated parts while he finds himself in awe over how right others are. He takes a little more liberty with the reply this time, not as overwhelmed by emotions but even more intrigued. Who is this lovely person, and how can Victor ever repay them for keeping his inspiration burning? 

He works harder. It’s the only way he knows to show them how much he appreciates them. He never gets any replies back, even when after a while he completely stops using any part of the standardized letter and starts asking questions about them instead. The emails still come at fairly regular intervals. Some are analyses, some just endless strings of how amazing Victor is. They’re not all skate related. About ten emails are solely about dogs, which Victor appreciates immensely. Dogs are wonderful, and that his secret admirer thinks so, too, warms his heart in an unreasonable way. Victor shouldn't care this much, he doesn’t even know this person, but it feels like he does. Or rather, like they know him better than almost anyone. 

The emails continue to come in until the Grand Prix Final in Sochi. After that, Victor hears nothing at all. 

* * *

“Victor, listen!” Yuuri exclaims as he comes tumbling into Victor’s room at the onsen, headphones in one hand, laptop in the other. He steps on Makka’s tail as he jumps up on the bed, apologising repeatedly as he leans in to place the earplugs in Victor’s ears. Makkachin forgives him immediately, because of course she does. She adores Yuuri just as much as Victor does. 

“The music for the free program is ready,” Yuuri says with a nervous smile. Victor’s exhausted and it’s the middle of the night. They had such a long, grueling practise today, but Yuuri is finally in his bed so Victor can’t complain too much, even if he stepped on his dog. He closes his eyes with a sigh, letting the piano piece wash over him. 

The song is breathtakingly beautiful, more than Victor could have ever hoped for when he heard the first draft. This fits Yuuri perfectly, his drive and energy, his softness and determination, the way he wavers but comes back stronger. 

Victor nods enthusiastically, mind filled with ideas for his free skate choreography. Yuuri’s face spreads into a wide smile, and he sighs in relief as he sits back on his heels. Victor knows he’s been stressing over this, and without being able to stop himself, Victor reaches towards his nightstand for his journal to start writing down ideas. As he does, he accidently spots the email address on the screen, and his heart jumps. He’d know that string of letters and numbers in the To line anywhere. It’s his secret admirer’s email. 

Stunned, he looks up at Yuuri, who’s looking at him with a puzzled expression. Victor lets out the breath he didn’t realize he’d sucked in and held. He can’t say anything about this now. They’ve gotten so much closer during the months Victor’s spent in Hasetsu, but they’re not there yet. 

He throws a smile Yuuri’s way instead, rewarded by a dazzling one back. They can talk about it later. For now, they have a free skate to choreograph. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> AND WITH THAT I HAVE MY FIRST **B I N G O** with one row completely done. Idk if anyone's interested in seeing the card but if you are, let me know. We'll see if I manage to get al the boxes done before December is over, wish me luck. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think in the comment section or on other platforms like:  
[Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/linisen) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/mjaoue)


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